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In the Forum: Horn-Loaded Speakers
In the Thread: RAAL “Water Drop” tweeter for Macondo.
Post Subject: Should we emulate what we admire?Posted by oxric on: 2/24/2011
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 Jorge wrote:
I tend to think that we are not copying Romy, but more that he has generated a school of thought on audio and yes horns speakers also.

I too have a system following some of the Macondo Axioms, but have used all diferent drivers.

As with other drivers, I tried several tweeters for my horn setup, some of them : Beyma CP21 (very good could get scratchy) : Stage Accompany (also very good and smooth) : Fostex TA500 (very very good but once you get the sound of ribbons I could not live with these) and right now the Lazy Ribbons from RAAL.

I fearfully contacted RAAL for the Water Drop tweeter expecting a high price and was reccomended the Lazy ribbon by Aleksandar.
 
As soon as I installed them I Forgot they existed! 

They blended in perfectly, not calling attention to them in a sense that the tweeters would make themselves present, some times high pitched voices would "go to the tweeter" and sound completely highish and not natural, or the violins will loose body and weight and come out thin like from the tweeter only or in some passages sound scratchy.  Not the RAAL, they just extend the frequency of your system wonderfully.

I am using the standard version, no Amorohous core and not the direct drive.  I have them hooked up at 111 db with an impedance of 3.5 ohms.  I do make a LOT of tests and I have not suffered because of the transformers or the impedance.  I bought these thinking on upgrading later to the direct drive version (I do multiamplify sometimes) but the normal ones sound so good I have not even turned around to look at them anymore!  There would be a lot of upgrades coming before I think about changing or upgrading my RAAL tweeters.

I have tried to measure them but either my RTA cannot get as high or they measure awful, but what do I care when they sound so good!

About the looks, well I listen to music with my eyes closed, so I dont really care.



Hi Jorge:

I am very grateful that you took the time to comment on your use of the Raal Lazy Ribbon. It is the first time, as far as I am aware, that anyone has commented on those and it is great that you were able to compare them with other solutions that you have used in the past.

You sound perfectly satisfied with these as they are. Nonetheless, I would think that amorphous core might, at these frequencies, on paper at least, have an advantage over the standard ferrite ones, although as Alex told me, they are 'very good'. It would be great to compare but that will not prove practicable in most cases unfortunately. Well, never mind, I will take the designer's word for truth.

I am listening to Cecilia Barloli wonderful recording 'Live in Italy' using only one channel of a Beveridge electrostatic speaker ( recent purchase, but I am listening to a single channel presently for reasons I can't bear to go into) and for all the obvious weaknesses in the bass and upper bass (because of speaker placement in a sharp corner I am hoping), the midrange and the highs are simply so beautifully natural, well-integrated that I forget about my woes and just bask in the glory of Cecilia Bartoli's voice, the palpability and naturalness of the violin and piano. 

I am fully in agreement with what you say about not seeking to 'copy' but if anything, one should do no more than taking inspiration from the 'Macondo axioms,' although I think the phrase is a misnomer. If i used the word 'copy' above, I am doing myself a great disservice and really should have said 'emulate,' in that I see such a strong sense of purpose, coherence and unifying whole in Romy's playback that I can nearly hear it without even being there, if you see (hear) what I mean. I have of course travelled my own journey in this hobby, and have strongly held beliefs, many of which are in complete disagreement with Romy's views (and when provoked enough I do say so on occasions). I will say one thing though, the philosophy that Romy adopts is so coherent that it has a feeling of inevitability and inexorability about it, if you go down his multi-channel route.

As for your not caring about looks when one listens to music, I agree and disagree. I agree for the very banal reason that the experience transcends anything as ephemeral as external appearance. Nonetheless, in life when we can, we try to capture not only the performance or function of a thing, but also a representation of it that captures or suggests its essence if at all possible.

Regards
Rakesh

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